Temple Police Shooting Suspect Shot Officer 3 More Times As Cop Lay On Ground With Head Wound: Officials

The 18-year-old sus­pect accused of fatal­ly shoot­ing a Temple University police offi­cer in the head over the week­end stood over the offi­cer and shot him three more times as the cop lay on the ground near the Philadelphia cam­pus before try­ing to steal the fall­en officer’s gun, offi­cials said on Tuesday. Philadelphia police released the new details dur­ing a press con­fer­ence on the death of Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald, who had respond­ed Saturday night to a rob­bery call in an area that offi­cials say has seen a spike in car­jack­ings and rob­beries. While respond­ing to the call, police said Fitzgerald spot­ted three teenagers dressed in all black and wear­ing masks to cov­er their faces. The offi­cer approached the trio but they tried to flee. Fitzgerald called in a foot pur­suit over his radio and chased after the teens. He caught up to the 18-year-old alleged gun­man, lat­er iden­ti­fied as Miles Pfeffer, and ordered him to get on the ground, police said.

Pfeffer ignored the officer’s orders and pulled out a gun, accord­ing to author­i­ties. The sus­pect fired at Fitzgerald, strik­ing the offi­cer in the head and tor­so. When Fitzgerald fell to the ground, Pfeffer shot the offi­cer three more times, offi­cials said.

Pfeffer ini­tial­ly fled the scene, accord­ing to police, but returned to search through the fall­en officer’s pock­ets. Officials said he tried to steal Fitzgerald’s gun. After shoot­ing the offi­cer, police said the sus­pect car­jacked a dri­ver at gun­point, threat­en­ing to shoot and kill them. Fitzgerald, a mar­ried father, was rushed to a Temple University Hospital, where he lat­er died. He served on the Temple University police force since October 2021 and was the son of a for­mer police chief of Fort Worth, Texas.
Officials said Pfeffer was iden­ti­fied as a sus­pect after the two oth­er teens he was with were detained and told police his name.
Less than 12 hours after the shoot­ing, U.S. Marshals cap­tured Pfeffer in Buckingham Township, Pennsylvania. Officers used Fitzgerald’s hand­cuffs dur­ing the arrest.
Pfeffer is fac­ing mul­ti­ple charges, includ­ing mur­der of a law enforce­ment offi­cer, rob­bery and car­jack­ing, offi­cials said. He is not eli­gi­ble for release on bail. Temple police said the depart­ment is work­ing to hire more police to help keep its cam­pus safe, adding that it has become dif­fi­cult to find qual­i­ty peo­ple who want to be a police offi­cer. Meanwhile, city and school offi­cials said Philadelphia has a major crime prob­lem, with Mayor Jim Kenney and District Attorney Larry Krasner repeat­ed­ly blam­ing the lack of gun control.(From Yahoo​.com)